Meow: Another Double Dose of Schadenfreude From Carlos Ghosn

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems
meow another double dose of schadenfreude from carlos ghosn

Shortly after his high-flying escape from Japanese semi-captivity in late 2018, former Renault-Nissan Alliance boss Carlos Ghosn got catty, marveling at what became of those two automakers after they dropped him from the phone directory.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic sinking profits and sales across the globe, Ghosn is pretty sure he knows what’s really to blame for Nissan’s current misfortunes.

As you read last week, Nissan expects its global production to take a 30 percent haircut in 2020. In May, the company released a near-term plan to shrink its global footprint and model range in the interest of stabilizing the overstretched company’s balance sheet.

In February, Nissan recorded its first quarterly loss in more than a decade.

Going forward, the goal of still fresh-faced CEO Makoto Uchida is modest market share and operating margins, with a primary focus on North America, Japan, and China — quite a U-turn from the heady, expansionist Ghosn era.

Still claiming to be the victim of a corporate coup, Ghosn spoke out from his Lebanon refuge, telling France’s Le Parisien newspaper, “There is a market confidence problem in the alliance.”

“Personally, I find the results of Nissan and Renault pathetic. The two companies are looking inwards. There is no longer any real mix of management between Renault and Nissan, but a distrustful distance, “ he said during the interview, per Reuters.

Ghosn, who sought closer integration between the two companies (much to the chagrin of many of their executives) contrasted the share price performance of several big-name automakers with that of Nissan and Renault, which have seen their stock decline anywhere between 55 and 70 percent since his arrest.

On the legal front, Japan desperately wants Ghosn back in its grips, but Lebanon does not have an extradition treaty with that country. France would also like to have a word with him. Ghosn said he aims to clear his name while cooperating with authorities, but a meeting with French prosecutors didn’t go off as requested on July 13th.

“There is a technical obstacle. My passport is in the hands of the attorney general in Lebanon, because Japan has issued an international arrest warrant for me,” Ghosn said. “I also want to be sure that my security is assured and that I am guaranteed freedom of movement.”

[Image: Frederic Legrand/Shutterstock]

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  • Flipper35 Flipper35 on Jul 21, 2020

    We have a 2013 Rogue and it was given to us 3 years ago by a family member so all we had to pay was title and license fees. It was still too steep a price to pay for the piece of crap.

  • Schurkey Schurkey on Jul 21, 2020

    When I heard that Nissan and Renault were in bed together, I knew Nissan was gonna get screwed. You'd have thought they'd have learned from American Motors. There's a success story for the ages. Apparently, Nissan executives are every bit as dumb as Ford and Chrysler execs.

  • Jeanbaptiste Any variant of “pizza” flavored combos. I only eat these on car trips and they are just my special gut wrenching treat.
  • Nrd515 Usually for me it's been Arby's for pretty much forever, except when the one near my house dosed me with food poisoning twice in about a year. Both times were horrible, but the second time was just so terrible it's up near the top of my medical horror stories, and I have a few of those. Obviously, I never went to that one again. I'm still pissed at Arby's for dropping Potato Cakes, and Culver's is truly better anyway. It will be Arby's fish for my "cheat day", when I eat what I want. No tartar sauce and no lettuce on mine, please. And if I get a fish and a French Dip & Swiss? Keep the Swiss, and the dip, too salty. Just the meat and the bread for me, thanks. The odds are about 25% that they will screw one or both of them up and I will have to drive through again to get replacement sandwiches. Culver's seems to get my order right many times in a row, but if I hurry and don't check my order, that's when it's screwed up and garbage to me. My best friend lives on Starbucks coffee. I don't understand coffee's appeal at all. Both my sister and I hate anything it's in. It's like green peppers, they ruin everything they touch. About the only things I hate more than coffee are most condiments, ranked from most hated to..who cares..[list=1][*]Tartar sauce. Just thinking about it makes me smell it in my head. A nod to Ranch here too. Disgusting. [/*][*]Mayo. JEEEEZUS! WTF?[/*][*]Ketchup. Sweet puke tasting sludge. On my fries? Salt. [/*][*]Mustard. Yikes. Brown, yellow, whatever, it's just awful.[/*][*]Pickles. Just ruin it from the pickle juice. No. [/*][*]Horsey, Secret, whatever sauce. Gross. [/*][*]American Cheese. American Sleeze. Any cheese, I don't want it.[/*][*]Shredded lettuce. I don't hate it, but it's warm and what's the point?[/*][*]Raw onion. Totally OK, but not something I really want. Grilled onions is a whole nother thing, I WANT those on a burger.[/*][*]Any of that "juice" that Subway and other sandwich places want to put on. NO, HELL NO! Actually, move this up to #5. [/*][/list=1]
  • SPPPP It seems like a really nice car that's just still trying to find its customer.
  • MRF 95 T-Bird I owned an 87 Thunderbird aka the second generation aero bird. It was a fine driving comfortable and very reliable car. Quite underrated compared to the GM G-body mid sized coupes since unlike them they had rack and pinion steering and struts on all four wheels plus fuel injection which GM was a bit late to the game on their mid and full sized cars. When I sold it I considered a Mark VII LSC which like many had its trouble prone air suspension deleted and replaced with coils and struts. Instead I went for a MN-12 Thunderbird.
  • SCE to AUX Somebody got the bill of material mixed up and never caught it.Maybe the stud was for a different version (like the 4xe) which might use a different fuel tank.
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